The bar music was deafening. Not because it was loud, but because it was country. Penny didn’t bother with twangs and guitars after she’d left this town. Too many memories of rough denim pants and leather jackets. She didn’t need to add sad lyrics about messy breakups to the mix. She had enough baggage as it was. She traded the pants for platform sneakers and the jackets for plaid button-ups. She cleaned out the baggage with brunches and hookup apps, which eventually lead her to Eva. With Eva, came a whole new Penny. Yet that Penny, the one behind concrete walls and bustling city streets, was now confronted with this Penny, the one trapped in pastures outside of trailers.

The one thing she carried with her into her new life was the style of drink she preferred. She swirled the glass and watched the ice clink around the sides. A coke and two shots of rum. Simple, easy, and every bar between here and three states over had the supplies to make it.

A cigarette hung limply between Penny’s fingers. Most of it was already burned before she brought it to her lips for the second drag. She coughed instantly and fisted her chest while her eyes watered.

“Not used to the smoke?” asked Sam as he invited himself and slid into the booth across from her. He looked even more worn than when she'd seen him earlier. The sweat was clumped with dry dirt on his face and his shirt was stained yellow from perspiration.

“Ye-yes…no-o,” she coughed. She drank a few gulps of her drink to bring herself back down. “I used to,” she started and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I used to be very used to it. Then I quit.," she paused, just looking at the glowing cherry on the end of the bud, "then I came here and figured ‘fuck it,’” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Guess I was used to vaping more than I thought.” She tapped out the end of her cigarette off the side of the table. She continued to hold it between her fingers, though. She wasn’t ready to be completely done even if her chest was still burning. “What are you doing here?” she then asked. She hadn’t invited him, and yet here he was in front of her.

Sam chuckled in that same dumb way he did at the barn. “Well, I’m off work, and just like everyone else here I decided to come by for a beer before bed.”

Penny looked to the glass in his hand and noted something interesting. “You don’t have a beer, though,” she observed and looked back up to his eye.

Sam smiled and nodded his head. “Guess beer is generalization,” he held up the glass and looked it over, “you caught me, though. Whiskey is my lady of the evening.”

Penny couldn’t help but match his smile. He was a good person. It leaked from his pores like the sweat dried on his brow. She didn’t know how she knew, but it was there, right on the surface. He wasn’t hiding anything mysterious or set out with ulterior motives. He was just some goofy guy in a white t-shirt with his orange hazard vest still draped over his chest.

“That being said, why are you here? You’re not drinkin’ a beer and you don’t work here anymore. What’s a high brow girl like you doing in some ashtray like this?”

Penny smirked slightly and her cheeks warmed from the rum she’d just had. She wasn’t a lightweight by any means, but the buzz hit her all the same. “Oh, just having a drink after a shit-tastic day,” she replied. “Had to go meet my ex brother-in-law, then saw my ex, then didn’t make it to the county clerk, and then I was hungry and thirsty, and honestly…I just wasn’t ready to go back to my room and fight with my fiancé.” She sat back in her booth and continued to slowly spin her glass around. “So I figured here would be better.”

Sam was nodding his head as he listened, taking intermittent sips of his whiskey. “Yeah, that can be rough. Who’s your ex?” He was doing his best to make small talk, and Penny admired it. In most instances she'd be shooing him away, but for what ever reason she was open to his company.

“Bennett Kormick,” she replied.

“Nate Kormick’s brother?!” Sam asked in bewilderment. Penny almost cracked a smile, because his face lit up like a child's uncovering a mystery.

She was unphased, though, or at least kept her face that way. “Yup, good ol’ Nate’s brother.” She tapped the side of her glass and pulled the cigarette back up to her lips. She took another drag, still coughing slightly, but at least this time the nicotine hit faster than the burn in the back of her throat.

“Why’d you have me give you his number? If you knew?” Sam tilted his head to the side and appeared a little more than confused. He hunched over the table, leaning in closer as if it would help him better understand.

Penny shrugged her shoulders again. “The less new people are in my business the less drama I have to worry about,” she flicked the end of the ash in the ashtray this time and let a heavy waft of smoke slide from her lips.

“I’m not new,” Sam corrected. He straightened up and took another sip of his drink. “We’ve met, Penelope. I mean, we met a very long time ago. We were just kids, but I came in and out of here every summer. Stayed with my gramps a couple months a year and then would go back home. Even helped on the farm some.”

Penny watched him suspiciously. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to remember his name and place his face along some story she’d buried with the rest of her past. But nothing was there. She’d swear on her life she met him for the first time that morning.

“It’s fine, really,” Sam paused and ran his hand through his dirty blond hair. “I did move here this last year. Permanently. So, I guess I’m behind on all the ends and outs. Hell, I’m shocked you were married to Bennett,” he shook his head in disbelief and downed the rest of his whiskey. “I’ve at least known the Kormick twins for the last twenty years. So many stupid memories with those guys, yet…You’re just some how missing.” The silence then fell between them, and Sam gathered that Penny didn't have much else to say.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Penny glanced off to the bar. She couldn’t answer his trailing thoughts any better than she could place him in a memory. She also didn’t want to entertain the idea of resurrecting the past. They knew what they knew and they didn’t know what they didn’t. To her it was really that simple.

She watched the patrons that were huddled on worn barstools, tapping off the ends of their cigars and their smokes between swigs from the bottle. Just a few feet over were the ones that had straggled to the dance floor. In all honesty it wasn’t a dance floor, just an open space in front of the jukebox. There were two or three couples, all older who looked like they’d been rode hard and put away wet. Their arms snaked around each other as they exchanged drunken giggles.

“Wanna dance?” she asked without even looking over.

Sam didn’t really put up much of an objection, but he did decide to be a gentleman about his choice. He led her out by the hand and spun her around to face him. He kept her a bit farther away with his hands in the middle of her torso, keeping his appearances pure and honorable. He looked her in the eye and swayed gently with the music.

“You’re a pansy,” she commented.

“That’s derogatory. I’m respectful,” he corrected and placed her hands upon his shoulders. “You have a fiancé and I’m not about to create any kind of hum buzz about my intentions.”

“Hum buzz? Intentions? This isn’t a church middle school dance. We’re in our thirties at a bar,” she said and slipped her hands behind his neck, pulling herself a touch closer. “Not like Eva would really care,” she added with a sigh.

“Eva? A lesbian calling me a pansy, eh?” Sam gave a soft chuckle. He kept his hands as steady as his sway. He didn’t mind her coming closer, but he wasn’t about to meet her halfway.

“Bisexual,” Penny corrected. “She’s a lesbian, I’m just bi. Hence the first marriage being with a man.”

“So what’s the deal with you and Eva? Am I not a threat ‘cause I’m a guy?”

Penny’s entire frame stiffened in one moment and her lips tightened. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “We’re like any couple. We have our issues and insecurities. We fight and we yell. It’s only bad right now because we’re getting married in a month and she’s stressed.”

“Thought you didn’t want to talk about it?” he observed.

Penny gave him a playful glare. She pulled herself just a bit closer again, wanting to relax into the music and change the tone from her upcoming nuptials. His strong hold on her was also becoming comforting to her as well. “She’s just a lot. I do my best, but she wants the world.” She was looking up at him with softer green eyes. She could feel herself wanting to be welcoming towards him and invite some of his comforting intimacy into her bubble, but the realization of how she was acting finally struck her.

“Which is why I need to finish my business and get back to her,” she said as she immediately pulled away. She grabbed her things at the table and started counting cash to lay under her drink.

“Wait wait wait…” Sam called and gently caught her by the elbow. “Look, I’m not here to make this complicated. I’m sorry if you got the wrong signals. You looked like you needed a friend and –“

“I need fucking answers, Sam!” she snapped, yanking her arm away. He, along with everyone else in the small bar, was caught by the sudden yell. He instinctively held his hands up in surrender.

“Okay, what answers?” he asked calmly.

Penny could feel her heartrate rise with everyone staring at her. She felt like the bomb ready to go off and here was the bomb squad, delicately snipping her wires to diffuse the situation. “Forget it,” she replied quietly. “You don’t have the answers I need.”

“Maybe I do,” Sam replied. He slowly and hesitantly stepped closer so she wouldn’t feel the need to yell again.

“Do you know why I was adopted?" She chuckled wryly. "Did you even know I was adopted?”

“I – ugh…”

“Do you know why my aunt left her estate to a man that doesn’t live here anymore? Someone I’ve never met or heard of?”

“Um..I…” Sam began to nervously scratch the back of his head.

“Exactly, Sam. You don’t have the answers I need.”

Sam let out an uncomfortable sigh. “No, Penny, it’s not that. I do, but I…Legally I can’t talk about it.”

Penny straightened up and stepped back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Excuse me?” She tilted her head and her eyes narrowed in question. “You can’t legally tell me what’s going on with my property?”

“That’s - that’s not what I meant,” Sam said, his own tone tightening up. “I can’t legally say why Mr. Dane is on the paperwork. I can’t tell you why you’re adopted – that I actually don’t know – But I can’t elaborate on all the specifics. The case isn’t closed.”

“Closed?” Penny questioned. She was sliding from annoyed to suspicious.

Sam sighed and grabbed his jacket. He added some cash beneath hers. He placed his hand on her shoulder and kept his face as serious as possible. “Penny, there’s a lot going on. I promise I’ll keep you in the loop.” His words were genuine, and she could feel it, but that didn’t mean she was satisfied.

She placed her hand on top of his. She was only mildly ashamed for what came next. She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand and gave it a small squeeze. Her eyes welled up with tears and her gaze shifted between him and the crowd at the bar. “It’s just…everything is really tough,” she started, pausing before her voice fully cracked. “Eva is hounding me for being here, I wasn’t supposed to see Bennett, I don’t know what the hell is evening happening!”

Sam pulled her in tightly without any hesitation. He was quick to wrap his arms around her and press her head against his chest. Maybe it was the whiskey, maybe it was her rum and coke, or maybe it was because he couldn’t ever stand to see a woman cry. No matter what, he wanted her close. “Shhh…shhh, It’s okay,” he whispered into the top of her head.

“I haven’t even had the chance to say goodbye to my aunt…” she blubbered into his chest. Tears burst down his chest and damped Sam’s shirt. She wasn’t a crier, not really, but she knew Sam was a sucker.

A set of headlights flashed through the front window and blinded her. She pulled back from Sam just in time to see a red truck pull into the parking lot. Her heart dropped. She didn’t need to look any closer. She knew exactly who it was. “I have to go. I have to get out of here right now,” she said hastily, immediately brushing the forced pity from her face, and began to frantically check to make sure she had her things. Purse, jacket, keys, phone, she was good. “Fuck…” she muttered. She was ready to blast out of there when Sam finally caught on.

He grabbed her by the elbow once again. “Go out the back and stand next to my truck,” he instructed and nodded his head towards the parking lot. “Blue one, you know what it looks like. You can stand behind the tail and they won’t see,” he added. “Hurry, they’re not looking.”

With that, she gave a single nod of her head and made for back door of the bar.